Friends and family have rallied around Mayor Sally Betts, who has worked for years raising money for the Cancer Council. Picture. Phil HillyardSource:News Limited

WAVERLEY Mayor Sally Betts has been diagnosed with breast cancer just days before Saturday’s local council elections.

Doctors told Ms Betts on Tuesday that she has stage two cancer in both breasts, but the veteran politician, who has been mayor since 2012, has bravely vowed to contest the election and beat the disease.

“Of course the prognosis is good — the alternative is not so nice,” an upbeat Ms Betts told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. “I’m still going through the process of working out what I’m going to do. Obviously I have to have surgery but I haven’t decided what kind yet.”

Friends and family have rallied around Ms Betts, who has worked for years raising money for the Cancer Council. She is divorced but has family in Sydney, South Africa and elsewhere, and is being treated at St Vincent’s Hospital

Asked if she had considered standing aside, the 72-year-old who emigrated from South ­Africa in 1974 replied: “Absolutely — but when I look at the vicious campaign that’s been run against me, I have to run. If I can fight cancer I can fight Labor.”

Waverley is one of 46 NSW councils holding elections on Saturday, including many of those caught up in the state government’s botched mergers.

Waverley was due to merge with neighbouring Woollahra and Randwick to create an eastern suburbs “super-­council” but the amalgamation was delayed while Woollahra launched a legal challenge.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian dropped the fight in July, ­allowing councils that had not already merged to remain as they were. Labor and independent candidates are expected capitalise on widespread anger over the merger process and pick up council seats across the state.

Ms Betts blamed stress from a “horrible” year, including a long-running and highly acrimonious row about the redevelopment of Bondi Pavilion, for the cancer developing.

“The greatest thing that causes cancer is stress,” she said. “The attacks that have gone against me for so long, day-in and day-out, have got to have played a part.

“When you consider the cause of cancer, people should be a little more caring about each other — even across the political divide.”

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Ms Betts is one of Sydney’s longest-serving councillors. She won a spot on Waverley in 1995, having previously had a crack at state politics. She worked at Qantas until 2005 before spending six years working in state parliament. She is a long-term staffer in Malcolm Turnbull’s eastern suburbs electorate office.

Fellow Liberal candidates were stunned at the cancer news. The party holds seven of the 12 seats on the council.

Ms Betts defended her record as mayor, saying the council had whipped its ­finances into shape and ­almost cleared its infrastructure backlog.

Labor has vowed to tackle congestion and make parking easier, including turning meters off in parts of Bondi in the evening.